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Errant lovers beware the private-eye clown
February 22 2001 at 05:33PM
Cologne - German carnival-goers tempted to forget their marriage vows during celebrations which hit fever pitch on Thursday should keep a lookout for "Berry" the bespectacled clown.
Berry is actually Cologne private detective Lothar Wenzel, on the lookout for husbands and wives taking advantage of the fancy-dress extravaganza to indulge in what Germans call a "sideways jump" - a Seitensprung.
His glasses contain a mini-camera which has proved the undoing of many a carnival reveller, and business has taken off so much that he will have a dozen undercover agents on the streets of the Rhineland carnival capital this year.
"Demand is so great during carnival that I have to turn away some requests," Wenzel, 56, told the local Express newspaper.
In about 40 percent of cases, Wenzel's team manages to come up with videotaped or photographic evidence confirming his clients' worst fears.
"Usually it ends in divorce," the private eye added.
The four-month carnival season, celebrated in Germany's predominantly Catholic west and south, climaxed on Thursday with Weiberfastnacht - women's fasting night - when women storm town halls and seize the keys to the city.
Men wearing ties to work also run the risk of having them cut off by female colleagues in a ritual interpreted by some as a symbolic castration.
Festivities featuring much swaying to traditional ballads and brass bands culminate in processions on Rose Monday and Shrove Tuesday, the last day before Lent - the fasting period which precedes Easter. - Reuters
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